bluenose boondoggle

Design date, 1937. (Wikipedia)

Conservatives are a crappy gift that keeps giving. The Bluenose II project is 'now five years behind schedule and $12.5 million over budget.' It gets worse. The contract signed in 2009 by MHPM carried no fines or penalties for delays. Cheques just flowed.

Yes, federal infrastructure stimulus.

In summer 2016, MHPM changed its name to Colliers Project Leaders (CPL). Former PMSH joined Colliers board of directors in September. Franklin Holtforster is still president. Stephen Vaslet is still vice-president in Halifax.

Article: http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/1427520-bluenose-boondoggle-the-gold-plated-management-contract


On a side note -
Alex Colville did the 1967 centennial 10-cent Mackerel and the one-cent Dove.

strange parallels

There is something oddly familar about Rob Ford as the 'mayor of heaven' and the glory of Mr Chris Christie.

In 2012, a tax-exempt "social welfare organization" called Committee for Our Children's Future, CCF, ran a series of TV ads telling America that Governor Christie has performed more miracles in New Jersey than Jesus did with loaves and fish. link

uncut.uk

Protest placards in the UK re austerity measures

ANNUAL COST PER PERSON IN UK

Public Forests: 30p each
Libraries: £21 each
Bank bailout: £31,250 each
Bank Bailout cost: £1 Trillion
Vodafone's unpaid tax bill: £6 Billion
Cuts to welfare: £7 Billion

UK Uncut, the new protest group against austerity measures in the UK

"We spent billions bailing out RBS, yet now the government are cutting our services," said Rosa Brown, 42, from UK Uncut. "They are letting RBS get away with the mistakes they caused and rewarding themselves with massive bonuses but punishing us."... US Uncut groups have sprung up from New York to Hawaii in the last three weeks and activists will demonstrate against government cuts and corporate tax avoidance in more than 50 cities on Saturday.

"UK Uncut inspires US groups to attack cuts and tax avoidance," Friday 25 February 2011, guardian.co.uk

best of 2016

Canada doesn't have solitary confinement, because luckily it's called administrative segregation.

Adam Capay has spent 1,560 days in solitary.
www.macleans.ca

• In the hole for 52 months.
• Youth justice system.

shooting an elephant

Zimbabwe 2012.

Donald Trump Jr. posing with an elephant tail.

waterboarding the babies

Who are these motherfuckers.

(15 Nov 2016) Six hundred infants were baptised inside Tbilisi Trinity Cathedral on Tuesday, with Patriarch Ilia II of Georgia becoming godfather to all of them.

grouse, otters, and penguins

Calgary Zoo

GREATER SAGE-GROUSE
2014. "Minister Aglukkaq has announced a $2.1 million contribution for the Calgary Zoo’s new captive breeding and rearing program for the Greater Sage-Grouse."
2014. "Of 13 hatched birds, only two survived to the age of seven months."
2016. "Controversial move comes despite calls from American legislators to keep avians on U.S. side of border... The Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission voted 3-1 to relocate 40 greater sage grouse hens this year across the border to Alberta, where an estimated 100 to 120 of the birds are left.
2016. A new breeding facility. "Fewer than 400 of the endangered birds estimated to exist in Canada today"

CRITICAL HABITAT: "Sage grouse now occupy only about 7% of their historical range in Canada... A multi-species action plan involving Greater Sage-Grouse in Saskatchewan is currently under way, and an action plan specific to Alberta will be developed in the future." (link)

Some time in the future.

LOGAN THE OTTER DROWNED
Zookeepers gave him pants.

HUMBOLDT PENGUINS DROWNED
Seven penguins found dead.

And Kakinga died at age 37.
The median life expectancy of gorilla in captivity is 31.1 years old.

ali underwater

THE PHOTOGRAPHER. Born in St Paul, Minnesota in 1930, Flip Schulke spent the majority of his career as a freelance photographer. After running away from home at the age of 15, Schulke soon found that he could help support himself by taking pictures-and he never looked back. He is celebrated for his iconic images of Elvis Presley, Muhammad Ali, Martin Luther King Jr., Fidel Castro, John F. Kennedy, and the early astronauts of the American space program. He pioneered underwater photography and dived with Jacques Cousteau. During the civil rights movement of the 1960s, Schulke's images stunned American magazine readers, helping to change public opinion and influence the course of history. 

Article: http://www.aliunderwater.com/history.htm

Muhammad Ali, born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr (January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016). 

oh.by.jingo.

That's all.

Please trip them gently, they don't like to fall, oh by jingo
There's no room for anger, we're all very small, oh by jingo
We're painting our faces and dressing in thoughts from the skies, from paradise
But they think that we're holding a secretive ball
Won't someone invite them
They're just taller children (ooh) that's all, after all...

federal budgets

GOVERNMENT OF CANADA FINANCIAL YEAR: APRIL 1 TO MARCH 31

[DOT-COM BUBBLE]

Monday, February 28, 2000
Finance Minister Paul Martin
******************37th Canadian General Election. November 27, 2000

Monday, December 10, 2001
Finance Minister Paul Martin

2002 Federal Budget - MIA

Tuesday, February 18, 2003
Finance Minister John Manley

Tuesday, March 23, 2004
Finance Minister Ralph Goodale
******************38th Canadian General Election. June 28, 2004

Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Finance Minister Ralph Goodale
******************39th Canadian General Election. January 23, 2006
In and Out scandal; Chuck Cadman; David Emerson; Gomery Commission

Tuesday, May 2, 2006
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty

Monday, March 19, 2007
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty
******************[An Act to amend the Canada Elections Act, S.C. 2007, c. 10] Fixed election dates

[HOUSING BUBBLE]

Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty
******************40th Canadian General Election. Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty

Thursday, March 4, 2010 after a 2-month prorogued parliament
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty

Tuesday, March 22, 2011 and Monday, June 6, 2011
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty
******************41st Canadian General Election. Monday, May 2, 2011

Thursday, March 29, 2012
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty

Thursday, March 21, 2013
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty

Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty 

[OIL PRICE CRASH]

Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Finance Minister Joe Oliver
******************42nd Canadian General Election. October 19, 2015

http://www.budget.gc.ca/pdfarch/index-eng.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Canadian_federal_general_elections